With the fate of fetishistic eroge all but sealed for the time being, the front is beginning to expand beyond the world of 2D illustrations, particularly in cases regarding loli and other underage porn. Politicans have begun calling for a "total" ban on lolicon, with the aim of criminalizing "simple possession".
The threat of absolute punishment for offenses vaguely defined seems to be making an impact. A survey of roughly three thousand people concerning the necessity of banning "simple possession" found that nearly 99% of respondents said "no", citing it as "excessive" or worrying over the implications of sent such material (say, via email) or of visiting places where it is present. The latter concern is particularly relevant, with recent stories reporting the arrests of two men for posting links to overseas sites distributing loli porn.
Unfortunately, neither the survey nor the arrest reports distinguished 2D and 3D. This is important, since 3D loli porn is already illegal in Japan (simple possession or otherwise), and 2D illustrations and such are not (at least not while the Diet is discussing the legislation).
Hit the jump for more developments.
The expansion of the front has dramatically increased the complexity of the issue, especially given the distributed, global nature of the internet.
For example, the forum that the arrested men posted links on had Japanese admins (who were also arrested), but was hosted in the US. It's also likely that the sites that had been linked may have been hosted in countries with more lax laws on pornography.
Other incidents of note include the arrest of a man for the P2P sharing of Rapelay, the game that started it all. Ironically, the reasons for the arrest were not because the game was about rape, but because it had been uncensored. It's almost funny that almost any level of sexual deviance is acceptable, so long as the peoples' privates are obscured.
At its most extreme the proposed bans extend to participants being "apparently" underage, a dangerous term to use especially when extended to the rather unrealistic depiction of characters in anime and manga. Will Konata and Evangeline A.K. McDowell be criminals next?
[Via Canned Dogs, Anime Vice, Yomiuri Shinbun and others]
7 comments
